[clue-tech] distributed.net

[Jason Ash]

Hi,

About six months ago I discovered a way to donate my idle CPU cycles to
science through distributed.net. The two current projects are breaking the
RC5-72bit encryption algorithm and Optimal 27-Mark Golomb Rulers. Basically,
they are building the world's largest supercomputer cheaply through
distributed computing. The 10^21 possible combinations for the RC5-72
algorithm could take 600 years with the current number of volunteers. They
have clients for Windows, Linux, Mac, Solaris, and BSD. They also have new
clients that take advantage of Nvidia CUDA and ATI stream GPUs to work on
the RC5-725 project. The Windows client only seems to use 1-2% of the CPU
according to the task manager, but it slows down my computer's response
significantly (AMD Athlon X2 @2.7GHz). On the other hand, the Ubuntu version
from their repositories uses 95% of the CPU, but I don't notice any slow
down of my computer (AMD Athlon 64 @2.4GHz) because it backs off when
another process needs the CPU. Consequently, the Ubuntu version increases
the temperature of my CPU by about 15 degrees C (38 to 53 C) according to
the gnome sensors-applet, but the Windows version doesn't significantly
change the temperature of my CPU according to PC Wizard 2010. Therefore, if
you are interested in donating your spare CPU cycles and you have a better
than stock CPU fan and/or don't mind your computer slowing down, I would
encourage you to participate.

Thanks,
Jason Ash
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